John Fox and Rupert Ross are used to seeing each other in the courtroom, not the classroom.

When Ross worked as the Assistant Crown Attorney for the District of Kenora, Fox encountered him during numerous bail hearings after being arrested for a variety of crimes, including assault and weapons charges.

The Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) has been a welcoming place for student Debra Wilson, who has returned to CSOP for a second time.

Describing herself as a person of many labels, including feminist, Muslim, Catholic and black-American, Wilson says she initially “didn’t think it [CSOP] was a place where she belonged.” After contacting CSOP, she says she “kept waiting for someone to say ‘don’t come,’ but that wasn’t what happened at all.”

Natalie Vander Zaag (OT’11) started at Canadian Mennonite University as a participant in CMU’s Outtatown French Africa program and stayed to study at CMU with a major in social sciences.

Vander Zaag had always been interested in psychology, but it was her work at an Aboriginal drop-in centre in Winnipeg’s North End that helped turn that interest into a true passion. “I am so interested in how the human brain works and the methods people use to heal. My work at the drop-in centre has made me even more passionate about healing and therapy,” says Vander Zaag.

The decision to study at Canadian Mennonite University required a leap of faith for graduate student Jose Moraga and his family, who came to Winnipeg from their home in Santiago, Chile.

“Continuing my studies outside of my country has been a very important step in my spiritual journey. I chose to study at CMU because I identify with the University’s focus on service, leadership, and reconciliation, its program flexibility, and its theology with a strong emphasis on justice and peace,” says Moraga.